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By Alexandra ZavisLOS ANGELES TIMES • Tuesday January 1, 2013 6:59 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan forces are preparing to take the lead in guarding more parts of the
country, in line with plans to assume full responsibility for security when most foreign troops
withdraw by the end of 2014, President Hamid Karzai’s government said yesterday.

The next phase of the handover of security duties from troops led by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization to Afghan soldiers and police officers will begin in two months and will give the
national forces primary responsibility for defending 87 percent of the population, said Ashraf
Ghani Ahmadzai, who heads a transition commission set up by the government.

Speaking at a news conference, Ahmadzai dismissed concerns about the readiness of Afghan troops
to take on the lead combat role against the Taliban-led insurgency, saying that security has
improved or remained the same in areas that have made the transition.

At the briefing, Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, said, “When the enemies of
Afghanistan have attacked the Afghan national security forces, they have been defeated.”

Most of the districts that will be included in the next phase of the transition are in the north
or the interior of Afghanistan; one district is in the restive southern province of Helmand. When
the handovers are completed at an unspecified date, Afghan security forces will be responsible for
23 of the country’s 34 provinces.

“This is a significant step towards our shared goal of seeing Afghans fully in charge of their
own security by the end of 2014,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

By summer, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force expects the Afghans to take
responsibility for the entire nation, with U.S. and international troops mainly in a support
role.

But the challenges were evident in a Pentagon report released in December that said only one of
the Afghan army’s 23 brigades can operate without international air, logistics and other
support.

The U.S. and its allies plan to maintain troops in Afghanistan after 2014 to train, advise and
assist the national security forces, but the size of that force is under discussion.

With the additional responsibility taken on by Afghan forces has come a heavier toll. More than
1,000 Afghan soldiers died in 2012, substantially more than in 2011, Afghan defense officials said
on Sunday.